It’s no secret you probably spend a great deal of time picking out your clothes. Your clothes help you express who you are, they help people gain a first impression of you, and they can make you feel powerful or uncomfortable.

Like it or not, clothing is a huge part of our lives, and there’s no sense in taking the time to pick out the perfect pieces for you and spend the money on them if you don’t properly take care of them.

One major problem that arises with clothing is shrinking. Once that gorgeous blouse you found shrinks in the dryer you can no longer wear it; what a waste.

Below we share some tips to prevent shrinking clothes.

Three tips to keep your clothes from shrinking:

Always look at your clothing label.

Now, this rule of thumb goes for all your clothes, all the time. It’s the first thing you should do before washing, drying, ironing, or even purchasing a clothing item. Your label will have specific instructions for how to care for the fabric of your clothing, and not following these instructions can very well lead to accidental shrinking. To be safe, a good tip to prevent shrinking clothes is todouble check labels of all clothes before each wash to be sure you are followingfabric care guidelines. These clothing labels will also let you know if you should launder or dry clean the item.

Dry your clothes on lower heat levels

One of the best tips to prevent shrinking clothes is to reduce heat while drying them. The intense heat of a dryer can cause shrinkage, particularly in fabrics like rayon or wool. So, not only is it important to read your clothing tags for instructions on how to wash, dry or iron your clothing, but also so you can see what types of materials are used and properly car for your items.

If your tags tell you to dry a shirt or pants on a low setting, make sure you only dry that item with other like items. You should be aware that drying things at a lower temperature will take additional time, tacking several more hours to your laundry day.

3. Don’t dry your clothes multiple times

We’re all guilty of this: you’re busy or not at home when your clothes finish in the dryer, so they end up sitting there for a few hours or even days, getting wrinkled. When you finally get the time to fold them and put them away, you restart your dryer for 30 minutes just to get those wrinkles out. The problem is this will cause your clothes to shrink. To prevent this, make sure you will be ready to fold your clothes as soon as the dryer is finished. However, you should also be careful not to over dry your clothes by leaving them in too long because that can cause fading. Check your clothes several times throughout the drying cycle to be sure they don’t continue to have heat applied to them after they’ve dried out completely.

And there you have our tips to prevent shrinking clothes!

Obviously, taking great care of your clothes takes time – and a lot of it. It’s easy to understand why many of these steps get skipped because they could easily add another hour or two onto your regular laundering routine.

That’s we’re here! Our laundry and cleaning experts have over 20 years of experience in how to properly wash, dry and fold clothing to prevent common issues like clothes shrinking or clothes fading. To top it all off, we can pick your clothes up and drop them off at times and locations most convenient to you.